Grandpa's back door (for the 55th generation)

Li Wei ate dinner at her maternal grandmother's house. Her grandmother's cooking was much better than her mother's. Only Li Lin and Li Lianhui could tolerate it, and they were both tall and strong.

After dinner, Grandpa Cheng went to chat with Blind Qian. When he came back, he asked Li Wei, "Does your aunt still need anyone? Old Zhang's daughter lost her job and asked me to ask if you need anyone. Please try to arrange something for her if you can. Old Zhang's life is over, and he's counting on his daughter to take care of him in his old age."

Li Wei thought for a while before remembering that Blind Qian did have a pretty daughter. She remembered that she worked at a textile factory in town, as a temporary worker. The girl was quite good-looking, but what could she do? The textile factory only produced some rough industrial cloth, and she wasn't a technician. She didn't seem to have a high level of education either. But she had to give her grandfather face, so Li Wei thought for a moment and said, "Grandpa, why don't you let her go to the company tomorrow? Let Auntie arrange what she can do."

Now her aunt Cheng Fei is really something. Ding Anping got her a car and a driver's license through connections, so she drives around in four cars now, acting like a big boss. She also treats the factory like her home, is very dedicated to her job, and only comes home a few times a month; she's always very busy.

Following the original trajectory of her life, her aunt married Ding Anping a year after graduating from high school. It's been over two years now, and they're practically dating, right? Anyway, Li Wei sees her aunt taking advantage of Ding Anping without hesitation, but she sees no sign of them getting married. Although Li Wei thinks her aunt is still young, only twenty-one, and getting married is a bit early, isn't she going to marry Ding Anping sooner or later? Keeping her hanging on like this, unable to get anything, will eventually lead to a rebellion.

Ding Anni, on the other hand, often went to the company to visit Li Wei during holidays, and secretly relayed a message from her mother, a Japanese soldier, to Cheng Fei, a guerrilla fighter and self-employed individual, inviting her to bring Li Wei to her home. Cheng Fei pretended not to hear it.

Li Wei felt that this matter couldn't be left unresolved, since her aunt would be sharing a bed with Ding Anping in the future, and Ding's father and Ding Anni were both nice people. So, on behalf of her aunt, she brought two bags of fruit to the Ding family's house and visited twice, and brought back two packs of Yunyan cigarettes.

The two sides are in a state of ambiguity.

The next day, Li Wei leisurely rode her bicycle to school. She felt she had left late enough and calculated that she would be in the classroom just before the morning self-study bell rang. But when she left the village and got onto the paved road, she heard someone behind her honking their bicycle bell loudly. At first, Li Wei ignored it. "You little brat," she thought, "if you honked a car horn, I might be afraid of you; if you honked a train horn, I'd be completely impressed. Otherwise, don't even think about overtaking me on a bicycle. Go ahead and rear-end me if you dare." She continued to weave along ahead, showing no intention of giving way.

Finally, the person behind got bored and rode up: "Hey, haha, Li Wei, you're only just starting school too?"

The voice sounded familiar. Turning around, she saw it was Xiao Hei, the boy from Hedong in her class. Remembering how he had tricked her yesterday and she hadn't been able to touch the snake, she said irritably, "Am I going to school or going home? Stop trying to make conversation. Hurry up and move along, or we'll get points deducted for our class." This kid loves to play with everything but studying. Who knows if he might be hiding spiders, toads, snakes, or rats on him? It's better to stay away than get too close and risk getting jumped on.

Xiao Hei is playful and quick-witted: "So... if you're late, you won't get points deducted?" Even though you're a good student, good-looking, and from a wealthy family, you don't seem to be so arrogant as to act like you own the place.

Li Wei chuckled: "You didn't know, did you? The student on duty is my sister."

That's right. After entering junior high school, Li Lin removed the mountain that was Li Wei weighing on her head. She suddenly became very successful. She was good at studying, beautiful, could play the erhu, and had a sweet tongue. She was deeply favored by her homeroom teacher and now holds the position of class monitor of Class 3, Grade 7. She's the only one on duty this week. She's the highest-ranking among Li Wei's group of students. Next is Wu Feng, the class's academic representative. The rest are Luo Da, Luo Er, Li Lianhui, and the two fat guys. They're clearly not honest people. It's a miracle they don't cause trouble. Can you expect them to do anything good for the class or serve the people?

Xiao Hei certainly knew Li Lin. That rich young lady who had never given him a second glance. A few days ago, he was late and was caught red-handed by the student on duty. Li Lin scolded him like a grandson, in front of everyone, making Xiao Hei blush and his heart race. His face was a dark red-purple hue. His words still echoed in his ears.

Watching the little black bike chugging away happily, Li Wei almost fell off her bicycle while laughing. The front wheel lurched, nearly knocking a pedestrian riding alongside into a ditch. She quickly apologized, "I'm so sorry, so sorry. Ah... Luo, Luo Jianhua, good morning!"

Luo Da steadied the car. He swallowed the last bite of food. He glanced at Li Wei: "Still early? What time is it? The teacher said we need to go early this morning. We have to work at the nursery this morning. Did you forget?"

"Ah—Is that so? I don't remember it. Wu Feng didn't mention it either." Li Wei really didn't have any recollection of it.

Luo Da scoffed, "You slept all afternoon, it would be strange if you knew." After saying that, he quickened his pace, intending to leave quickly and stay away from this idiot so as not to catch his idiocy.

Li Wei immediately stopped him: "Hey, wait a minute, are we going to that nursery not far from Wenquan Town? Oh, right, can you ask my teacher for leave for me? Just say I'm not feeling well, I'm sick. Don't forget, I'm going back now."

Without hesitation, Li Wei turned the car around, her feet moving much more energetically than Xiao Hei's earlier. This was no time to hesitate; if she was slow and someone saw her, it would be seen as shirking work, and that wouldn't sound good. She remembered clearly how many times she'd worked at the nursery in Wenquan Town, a school-affiliated unit, during junior high. She'd uproot and transport thick poplar saplings to designated locations, each person with a quota. It almost wore her out. Was that work for kids? That was the kind of work only a monk like Lu Zhishen would do! She despised schools.

Luo Da: ...

Li Wei had vanished without a trace; her escape speed was the complete opposite of her speed at getting to school.

I didn't dare take the bicycle home; I just locked it outside the blacksmith's shop at the station, said goodbye to the shop owner, and jumped onto the oncoming bus to head into the city.

Since it wasn't the weekend and commuters in the city usually start their workday early, there were plenty of empty seats on the bus. Li Wei found a single seat, adjusted her backpack to her chest, and held it up like a small turtle shell, which would both prevent it from digging into her back and also keep her from being robbed.

Li Wei, having nothing to do on the bus, rolled her dark eyes around, and suddenly noticed a girl diagonally opposite her with an impressive back view. Her hair was black, shiny, and smooth, and beneath her ponytail, a section of her snow-white neck and delicate ears were visible. No matter how you looked at it, she seemed like she must be a beauty from the front as well. With a back view like that, it would be an injustice if she wasn't beautiful from the front.

Li Wei's neck was getting sore from waiting, but the beautiful woman with her back to her still didn't give her a proper look. So she simply stopped looking, rubbed her neck, took out her water bottle from her bag to replenish her fluids, and reminded herself to stay hydrated, otherwise she wouldn't be as radiant as she grew up.

The company wasn't far from the station, about a ten-minute walk away. To Li Wei's surprise, the beautiful woman who had been in front of her actually entered the company gate before her. The young woman in charge of reception on the first floor stopped the beautiful woman and, seeing Li Wei coming in behind her, said, "Li Wei, she's here to look for a job. She said she's looking for General Manager Cheng."

At that time, the company did not have extension phones, and messages were relayed entirely by manpower.

Li Wei glanced at the girl a few times and found her somewhat familiar, but she was undoubtedly a beauty who did not disappoint her.

The girl recognized Li Wei and stepped forward with a smile, saying, "I know you. You must be Li Wei. You've been to my house before. I'm Zhang Tong. Uncle Cheng sent me."

Li Wei was still a little confused. Who was Zhang Tong?

Zhang Tong was a little embarrassed and said softly, "Uncle Cheng came to my house last night..."

Li Wei remembered, there was such a thing, but: "Isn't your surname Qian?"

Zhang Tong became even more embarrassed and whispered, "No, that's...it's my dad's nickname..."

Li Wei suddenly remembered. How could she have forgotten about this? Everyone always called him Blind Qian, but she had long forgotten that Blind Qian's real surname was Zhang, not Qian. What a mess this was!

Li Wei smiled apologetically at Zhang Tong: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

Zhang Tong still spoke softly, "...It's nothing..."

Li Wei took Zhang Tong to find her aunt. Cheng Fei's office was on the second floor, the westernmost room. Although the entire building originally had tiled floors, the first and second floors were simply painted and decorated, far less pleasing, elegant, and fashionable than the third floor with its carpet, large potted plants, and frosted thick glass partitions.

Cheng Fei's office was decorated better than the other rooms on the second floor and below, but it only had a large potted plant and a large red desk. The other facilities were the same, just a bit neater and cleaner.

Li Wei saw her aunt talking to a raw material supplier and was about to greet her before showing Zhang Tong around when Cheng Fei stopped her: "I've been waiting for you. Come in, I have something important to discuss with you." She made it sound quite serious.

Li Wei understood that the raw material supplier must have sat down and started chatting endlessly as soon as he arrived, and her aunt was too embarrassed to say anything else, so she had to find an excuse to send him away.

This raw material supplier was introduced by Zhou Qing. She was supposedly his classmate, a plump middle-aged woman who was very talkative. She never left without staying for most of the day. She also knew Li Wei and knew she wasn't just the boss's niece. However, she was a respected leader in the company who had dealt with Feifei Clothing for a long time and was somewhat immune to the rumors about this young woman's knack for making money from a young age. He quickly and warmly greeted Li Wei and then took his leave.

Finally gone, Cheng Fei had no time to argue with this woman. Turning to her niece, before Li Wei could speak, Cheng Fei asked, "Why didn't you go to school? It's not the weekend, is it? Why are you carrying your schoolbag and coming straight from school?"

Li Wei didn't hide anything, and said with a bitter face, "Today the school made us do heavy physical labor. Isn't that illegal child labor and child abuse? I took sick leave."

Cheng Fei was both amused and exasperated: "You're just afraid of hardship and fatigue. All the other students have to do it, but you can't?"

Li Wei scoffed: "That's because they're too cowardly to run away, pshaw."

Cheng Fei wasn't a rigid person, and Li Wei wasn't the kind of child she needed to worry about, so she didn't ask any more questions. When she saw Li Wei leading in a girl she didn't recognize, she asked, "Who is this? What can I do for you?" After two years of experience, her tone of voice had begun to carry the air of a leader.

Li Wei introduced her: "This is Zhang Tong. Her dad has a very good relationship with my maternal grandfather. She was introduced by my maternal grandfather, who is also your father. You can decide how to arrange things." The introducer is your father; whether or not to arrange things is your business. And if you dare disrespect my maternal grandfather, that's also your business.

Cheng Fei helped Zhang Tong sit down and asked about her education and work experience. It was really difficult to arrange a job for her. She had low education, little work experience, and no technical skills. There was never a shortage of people for positions that didn't require high personal qualities. After thinking for a while, she said to Li Wei, "Why don't you take her around to see what's suitable for her? We can talk about it later."

Li Wei understood immediately and led Zhang Tong to look around. Her aunt was in a bit of a dilemma; good positions weren't suitable for Zhang Tong, and arranging things poorly wouldn't be right with her grandfather. The idea was to get Zhang Tong to lower her expectations after a round of visits, making things easier. So, knowing exactly which departments to visit, what to look at, and who to talk to was a skill in itself. Even Wang Jie, the office manager in charge of personnel and general affairs, didn't have the same level of synergy between Li Wei and her aunt in this matter.

Li Wei led Zhang Tong on a leisurely tour, stopping frequently. Finally, they strolled around the third floor, where the company's elites were concentrated. In the softly colored meeting room, she poured Zhang Tong a glass of water, then sat down on the beige sofa to rest and catch her breath. After taking a sip of water, she put down her glass and asked Zhang Tong, "So, tell me, what do you think you're best suited for? Share your thoughts."

Zhang Tong's eyes had been glazed over since she reached the third floor, and it took her a while to realize what Li Wei had asked her. She stammered, "I...I think I'm suited to work on the third floor..."

Li Wei was so excited she almost slipped off the sofa and fell to the floor. "Big sister, you're ruthless! Going wherever the scenery is best, that's ambitious!"